buccaneer

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

Etymology

French boucanier, from boucaner (“to smoke or broil meat and fish, to hunt wild beasts for their skins”).

Noun

buccaneer (plural buccaneers)

1. (nautical) Any of a group of seamen who cruised on their own account on the Spanish Main and in the Pacific in the 17th century; similar to pirates but did not prey on ships of their own nation.
2. A pirate.

Translations

a group of seamen

• Finnish: bukkaneeri (fi), merirosvo (fi)
• French: boucanier (fr) m

• Italian: bucaniere (it) m
• Swedish: buckanjär (sv) c

pirate

• Esperanto: marrabisto (eo)
• Portuguese: bucaneiro (pt) m

• Swedish: buckanjär (sv) c, sjörövare (sv) c, pirat (sv) c

Synonyms

• pirate

Related terms

• buccaneering

See also

• Jolly Roger
• skull and crossbones

Verb

buccaneer (third-person singular simple present buccaneers, present participle buccaneering, simple past and past participle buccaneered)

1. To engage in piracy against any but one's own nation's ships.
   • 1963, John Day, Arthur Henry Bullen (editor), The Works of John Day, page v

     In 1596 and 1597 he bucaneered against Sao Thomi, the Portuguese slaving settlement off the coast of West Africa, and in the Spanish Main